Samuel JohnsonHe was a servant to the public, a writer for hire. He was a hero, an author adding to the glory of his nation. But can a writer be both hack and hero? The career of Samuel Johnson, recounted here by Lawrence Lipking, proves that the two can be one. And it further proves, in its enduring interest for readers, that academic fashions today may be a bit hasty in pronouncing the "death of the author." |
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... eyes . Yet it did not disable John- son . More truly , in the long run it defines him . No part suits him bet- ter than that of Odysseus in rags , arrived in Ithaca to claim his birthright after many labors , yet so disguised that the ...
... eye had always been his element as well as his infatuation . In many ways he fed on attention ; he could never " read his Verses without stealing his Eyes from the Page , to discover in the Faces of his Audience , how they were af ...
... Eyes the Streams of Dotage flow , / And Swift ex- pires a Driv❜ler and a Show " ( 317-318 ) , where two antagonists finally join in " Life's last Scene . " But much of the rest of the poem also closes the distance between those whose ...
Contents
the Western Islands of Scotland | 234 |
The Lives of the English Poets | 259 |
Johnsons Endings | 295 |
Copyright | |
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